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Wednesday, 30 July 2014

There is something about USA makeup that gets my heart all aflutter. Any beauty addict will know the feeling of seeing something raved about online and not being to get your hands on it in your country. The LA Glazed Lip Paints were no exception. After seeing countless rave reviews about these i just knew i had to get my paws on them, so a quick google search later i managed to pick up the entire set! These do range quite a bit in price on eBay depending where you get them from and average between £4-£6 each which isn't too bad. I paid £17 for the entire set including delivery (sorry i can't seem to find the same listing now!) so i was pretty darn chuffed!

With 6 shades to choose from there really is something for nearly everyone in this range, although a nude or two would be a great addition to the collection. They've been compared a lot to the Too Faced Melted Lipsticks but sadly other than their packaging their similarities end there. These remind me more of OCC Lip Tars as the scents are near enough dead on, although the LA Girl offering packs ever so slightly less of a punch in pigmentation. To me these are more like extremely pigmented, long wearing glosses. The applicator is a plastic tip and honestly is pretty useless for the product so i like to use a lip brush to make application a lot less messy!

Wear time i get around 4 hours of wear before i feel the need to touch up but they are very comfortable on the lips. I tend to use a clear lip liner with these too just the seal the edges to prevent feathering but that's something i now do with most of my lip products. We all know that I'm a huge fusspot when it comes to glosses and they aren't something i tend to reach for often. But so far these have been my most reached for lippies for the last few weeks. I think I'm well and truly off my matte kick for now and am thoroughly enjoying a plumper, glossier looking lip like these beauties give.

Babydoll - Blushing - Bomshell - Pin-Up - Hot Mess - Coy

All six colours are absolutely stunning and its a near impossible task to pick a favourite. But for sheer ease of wear I've been reaching for Babydoll the most out of the 6 with my boring ol' winged liner looks that tend to do often. I've not worn the gorgeous orange Hot Mess as of yet but to me it looks like the perfect orange shade, lets just hope it doesn't make my teeth look gross like most oranges do on me. Oh and Coy, all you purple lovers can lust after this one. It is an absolutely stunning purple and one I've actually been brave enough to wear a few times lately. I'm pretty much in love with this range!

Babydoll - Blushing - Bomshell - Pin-Up - Hot Mess - Coy

Overall these beauties have pretty much converted me to a more glossy finished lip. The colours are beautiful and the formula is spot on considering their price point at just $4 in the USA. Another plus is that LA Girl are completely cruelty free. These are now up there with some of my favourite drugstore lip products I'm enjoying them that much!

Saturday, 19 July 2014

The MUA £1 Blushers* have such a following that my local Superdrug struggle to keep them in stock, which is the reason I've never tried these bargainous beauties before! Shade 4 is one of 6 blushers in their original blush collection, back in 2013 they added some more, named shades to their blush range which I'm a big fan of too and have reviewed here.

Priced at just £1 these are for sure the best value blush offerings on the high street and considering the price, definitely do not skimp on quality! Shade 4 is an absolutely gorgeous apricot-rose tone on my fair complexion with a very, very subtle micro shimmer throughout. It has great colour pay off so a light hand is needed but blends out with ease.It wears a good six hours on me without fading and the shimmer in it is so fine it doesn't sit in my pores or accentuate my dryness. As you can tell it gets a big thumbs up from me!

On the skin there was something that really reminded me of my beloved Orgasm blush (pictured below next to a mini duo i own due to my fall size having well and truly hit pan and looking rather grubby) although from swatches i can see that the MUA offering is a tad more peachy / apricot. Shade 4 has such a lovely sheen that during the day I've been skipping highlighter all together but for evening wear my Mary Lou Manizer by The Balm has been my highlight of choice to pair with this, it is absolutely stunning!

Below the swatches of Shade 4 between Nars Orgasm Blush and Nars Deep Throat, to me this one falls somewhere in the middle of the two, although my DT blush doesn't tend to swatch very well. The MUA offering swatches a little more intense than the other two, but looks gorgeous on the cheek. I've found this to be a very versatile blush that can easily be dressed up or down and I've been reaching for it other my other blushes every day this week. It makes a wonderful summer colour!

Nars Orgasm - MUA Shade 4 - Nars Deep Throat

Overall this blush gets a definite stamp of approval from me! So much so that i will be keeping an eye on my local Superdrug store to see if i can catch any of the other shades in stock. I really do think MUA have some of the best blushes on the high street, regardless of their teeny tiny price the quality is great and I've adored every single one I've tried so far!

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Clinique blushes will always have a little piece of my heart as they are were quite possibly some of the first higher end blushes I ever owned. My lovely Mumma used to buy little Clinique gift sets for my sisters and I for Christmas most of my teenage years so I always had one in my makeup bag. Clinique makeup has really evolved over the years and I'm a little sad to say that they aren't something I've delved back into... until now!

These little beauties have recieved RAVE reviews all over the blogosphere, so much so that the UK had a countrywide shortage of these upon their release. Luckily now a quick google search has informed me they are all back in stock on the Boots and Clinique website, yay! I decided on two of the four colours; Plum Pop and Peach Pop as i felt these were the most wearable two for my coloring. Good ol' Boots points paid for Plum and i luckily spotted Peach in Gatwick's Duty Free back in May so now I have my paws on the two i wanted i can get onto to reviewing them!

First off, lets talk about packaging! How adorable are these? The clear casing is a thick, sturdy plastic and reveals the utterly pretty flower design of the product inside. I like to leave these sat out on my dressing table because they are just too precious! The products flower design is quite deep into the product, so i imagine it'd take quite a bit of use to wear the flower design down. I've been using these two almost every day this most and have yet to make a dent. These contain 3.5g of product which is a little under average for a blush (Nars blushes contain 4.8g and MAC have 6g) but they also have a lower price point at £16.50 which balances this out slightly.

Plum Pop is an absolutely stunning cool toned plummy pink that can be applied sheerly for just a flush of colour or with a heavier hand for a more intense plum cheek. I've found with both these blushes that when used with a softer synthetic brush (i use the Real Techniques Blush Brush) that they apply sheer and need a bit of building up as the bristles don't tend to pick up a ton of colour, but for a more intense look a natural bristled brush tends to pick up a lot more.

Peach Pop is my favourite of the two and is an almost slightly pinky peach which is an absolute stunner of a shade for summer. Both shades blend with absolute ease and are a real delight to use as they are really hard to overdo. Neither shades contain any shimmer but leave more of a satin like sheen to the cheek, so for every day wear I've been skipping highlighter. I might go as far to say that Peach Pop may be my new favourite peach blush and up there in my top 5 blushes ever! It really is beautiful.

Peach Pop - Plum Pop

Overall these blushes get a huge stamp of approval from me. So much so that I'm considering getting my mitts on the other two just to complete my collection. I really have enjoyed using these blushes and i don't think they'll be leaving my every day makeup stash any time soon!I really hope that with the success of this formula Clinique will release even more shades, because we all know I'd buy them!

Friday, 4 July 2014

Somewhere around Christmas i placed quite a sizable
Coastal Scents order during one of their 50% off sales. They have these quite
often so if they're a brand on your radar I'd wait for one of these events to
snag a great deal! As I'm pretty sure you all already know Coastal Scents is
one of those brands that sell a bunch of large eyeshadow, blush concealer
palettes including the now infamous 88 palettes.They also sell a large range of other products including brushes, single
"hot pot" eyeshadows (cheeky review of those coming in the near
future), primer glitter etc. etc. I've previously reviewed their Revealed
Palette, their Naked 1 and 2 dupes here.

There
are currently two 10 pan blush palettes and today I'll be reviewing the
original 10 Blush Palette. It hosts a wide range of shades from pinks, peaches,
berries and more natural tones making it extremely versatile and would be the
perfect pick for makeup artists in training, girls just starting out in makeup
or just your typical beauty lover as it has a $17.99 regular price tag, but
remember what i told you all about those sales!

It has an array of finishes from matte, satin to a couple
of shimmer based shades which I've really enjoyed for layering. I had this
little gem in my daily makeup stash for a good 3-4 weeks without needing to
reach for anything else! They are all well pigment, just slightly on the drier
side which makes them a little more difficult to blend. Most of the shades will
need to be used with a light hand on fairer skin tones as it is very easy to go
overboard then takes a little work to blend.Some of the shades are a tad stiffer in the pan then others but
performance wise they are pretty consistent across the board.

Overall i think some of the textures can be a bit more effort to work with but for the price this a lovely palette and something I'm glad to have in my collection. The packaging is quite large so probably not the best option for travel but if you're looking to add a range of shades to your makeup stash, this really isn't a bad choice!

Just a heads up! Do remember in the UK you will most likely get customs charged for any purchase over the value of £15 coming from outside the EU, plus a pesky Royal Mail/Fed Ex fee. I know customs are a bit hit or miss on what they pick up but i got stung with my Coastal Scents order so thought it only right to let you all know.

Tuesday, 1 July 2014

Nyx's Butter Glosses and Lipsticks have been a real smash hit product with bloggers over the past six months or so. So little addict here had to get on the bandwagon and after some frantic eBay searching i finally found a reputable seller that had these in stock. After spending quite some time searching for swatches i finally decided on these three shades; Hunk, Sweet Tart and Taffy. I wanted an array of shades to really give the formula a try, mostly because I had my eye on another three... I really am awful!

The packaging on these really floats my boat as each tubes colour corresponds with the lipstick shade inside, really great for quickly grabbing one out my lippy collection! They do however feel quite cheap, which may be expected with their $6 price tag, i just have to make sure the lid is secure before throwing in my handbag! Currently Nyx have released 22 shades of Butter Lipstick so if these colours don't take your fancy I'm sure one of the 19 others might.

The texture of these is on the thinner, sheerer side for a lipstick with the deeper shades packing the most colour punch. They are incredibly comfortable on the lips, a little slippy but feel somewhat moisturising which is a nice change from my usual matte picks. I just have to make sure (quite often) that I've not got them smeared all over my teeth... Which due to their thinner consistency (and my sloppy application) happens quite a bit on me. Also due to the texture they don't wear more than a few hours before needing a touch up which is their real downside. The wear time is quite a bit better over a lip liner, i really love Nyx's ones fyi, but they do not feather if applied without.

Taffy - Sweet Tart - Hunk

Sweet Tart and Taffy are the two I've been reaching for the most out of the bunch, mostly for throwing in my handbag for quick day time touch ups. I do love the shade Hunk (very similar to Mac's Rebel) but i prefer my deeper shades to wear a lot longer than this does. On a whole i was a little underwhelmed with these lipsticks and for me, they didn't live up to the Youtube hype they received. They aren't bad, they have a great colour range i just wish they had better staying power. I have also ran out of willpower and ordered a few of the Nyx Butter Glosses so i hope those really are hype worthy!